Britain’s only tin mine, South Crofty in Cornwall, could see much of its future production exported to the United States after Washington signalled it is prepared to provide up to $225 million (£166 million) in financing to support the site’s revival.
Cornish Metals, the company working to restart mining operations near Camborne, confirmed it has received a letter of interest from the US Export-Import Bank (Exim) outlining a potential funding package. The proposed financing is explicitly linked to supplying tin to the American market as part of efforts to strengthen critical mineral supply chains and reduce dependence on foreign producers.
The development comes less than a year after Cornish Metals secured a £28.6 million equity investment from the UK’s government-backed National Wealth Fund, which was framed as supporting domestic access to a strategically important mineral.
Restarting South Crofty is expected to cost around £198 million, with the mine targeting production by mid-2028. Cornish Metals said both the projected costs and timelines have increased over the past year as the company moves toward securing financing to cover capital and operating expenses. Following news of Exim’s interest, Cornish Metals shares rose 2.7 per cent.
Tin, classified as a critical mineral, is widely used in electronics, renewable energy technologies and advanced manufacturing. The UK currently produces no tin domestically, and South Crofty is expected to generate an average of around 4,700 tonnes of tin concentrate annually in its first five years—roughly equal to the UK’s total yearly consumption.
Fawzi Hanano, Cornish Metals’ chief development officer, noted that any US financing would likely come with expectations regarding offtake. “Exim would not give money to a foreign entity unless there’s something in it for them,” he said. “Ideally they would want all of the production, but in reality it would be a certain percentage that aligns with the level of financing being provided.”
Currently, none of South Crofty’s output is committed to buyers, and there is no legal obligation to supply UK customers despite the National Wealth Fund’s earlier investment. Hanano added that the UK and Europe lack the smelting capacity needed to process the mine’s high-grade tin concentrate into refined metal, limiting domestic use. The United States is also developing its smelting infrastructure as part of its critical minerals strategy.
Hanano suggested that future government-to-government arrangements could allow some tin to return to the UK for domestic processing. “If one country has upstream capacity and another has processing capability, there are structures where material can be processed and some of it returned. That’s ultimately a decision for governments to take,” he said.
The potential financing deal underscores growing geopolitical competition for critical minerals and raises questions about the extent to which UK-backed resource projects may ultimately serve domestic industry when foreign state financing and global supply chains are involved.
